


Passing the Baton

by TaurusVersant



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akira prepares for his own death, Canon-Compliant, Gen, pre-interrogation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 12:30:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14044305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaurusVersant/pseuds/TaurusVersant
Summary: “Makoto.” He said her name and her mouth shut tight. She hadn't heard that tone from him before. He looked her in the eyes and his were deep and in their depth she saw something she didn't quite understand. Akira shook his head. “Here's what I need you to do if I don't come back.”





	Passing the Baton

**_11/19, Saturday Lunchtime_ **

Six months ago Makoto Niijima intruded upon a Phantom Thieves meeting, Akira Kurusu, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, and unknown to her Morgana, conversing on Shujin's rooftop. That was the last time they used that location for Phantom Thief business, moving into Shibuya, then later onto Leblanc. Nowadays the most that went on between their members here were visitations to Haru as she worked upon the greenery she grew on that rooftop, and more often than not the focus of discussion then was as far from what they did as they could keep it. Offering company, and little more.

Haru was not here today. Perhaps the stress of what was to come that evening had her on edge to the point she would not enjoy working with the plants. Perhaps she simply did not trust her hands not to shake despite requiring delicacy in their care. Makoto could agree with that.

Akira, she noted, did not seem to have any shake to him. He stood there, looking out over the rooftop, over the school, and seemed fine. Far too fine for someone preparing to put their life at risk in the manner he was. Makoto would have called him out on it, had they met by chance.

But instead a message on her phone had requested she join him here for lunch. He was the only one here. No Ryuji. No Ann. Not even Morgana. Makoto stood there and watched his back as he watched the clouds go by overhead. The students wander about down below. A world unknowing of what was to happen next.

They didn't even have a clue.

“You feeling okay?” That the first thing he did was consider her didn't surprise Makoto by this point. Akira had that habit of checking in with the others, but rarely giving anything when checked on himself. More than once Ann and Haru had complained to Makoto about how difficult Akira could be sometimes. Always appearing so kind, always appearing to give so much, but rarely giving of his own true thoughts. They believed in him, yes, but they wished they could know him. Makoto was the same. She knew Yusuke had observed similar too. Ryuji and Futaba were the outliers there, and Ryuji had been around Akira the most besides Morgana, while Futaba and he were already like family, even if neither directly admitted it.

Makoto wondered if either of them had noticed anything about him.

“As well as I can be,” was the honest reply she gave him, he nodding in response, understanding exactly what she meant. “We're not about to go through an easy thing, after all.”

“No,” he agreed with that, “We're not.”

“You're fine with the plan?” Makoto had to ask even knowing Akira had agreed to everything the moment it was proposed, “You're ready?”

“As I can be,” he returned to her with a grin that didn't at all reach his eyes, Makoto's tight-lipped expression replying that she'd learned more than enough just hearing that from him. A little crack in the armour of Akira Kurusu. He was worried too. It didn't relieve her, but it gave her a feeling of something like relief all the same, knowing Akira was worrying about his safety, considering what was ahead. He wasn't just throwing his life on the line without a care. That meant something. It really did.

“Can I help?” They treated Makoto as something of a second-in-command, even though she'd never really expected them to. Strategist of course, someone who could formulate plans – even if far too often her own headstrong nature was lambasted by the others – but leader? She hadn't thought of herself that way ever.

But in combat Akira trusted her to guide the others as much as he did. In discussions he tilted conversations to her and sought her counsel. And he spoke to her often, just the two of them, about what was to come next. Strategy. Concept. Ideas. She knew the most of all of them besides Akira himself about just how the leader of the Phantom Thieves operated. Sometimes, in rare nights where her thoughts would never reach another, she wondered if she could do as he did, lead the others with confidence and calm. She didn't think so.

Yet sometimes she still wished to try.

Akira nodded, moving away from the edge he'd been watching over, back towards Makoto, standing in the centre of the rooftop. His expression was a cooler one, neither the warm and teasing smirk, nor the laugh in his eyes he'd wear when the others were making fun amongst themselves. Serious.

“Tomorrow's the big day.” He said it matter-of-factly. They both knew how intensely the thought of it made their guts churn. “Whatever happens, everything's going to change then.” He didn't look her in the eyes. Makoto quickly moved to reassert her stare.

“'Whatever happens'?” She knew exactly what was to happen. Akira Kurusu, with the aid of the rest of the Phantom Thieves, would undergo interrogation by her sister, the plan would be executed flawlessly, Akechi would murder a fake, and Sae would bring their leader home. That was what was going to happen.

Akira didn't meet her gaze.

“Akir-”

“Makoto.” He said her name and her mouth shut tight. She hadn't heard that tone from him before. He looked her in the eyes and his were deep and in their depth she saw something she didn't quite understand. Akira shook his head. “Here's what I need you to do if I don't come back.”

“Akira!” Shock, panic, fear and fury, emotions coursed through her with the exclamation, Makoto's eyes wide to hear such a thing from him. “Akira you're _going_ to come bac-”

“Makoto!” He said it again and she heard an edge of panic in his own voice. She'd never heard him panic before. Not like this. She stared. “I need you to do this for me. No-one else can. If the worst happens, it needs to be you. Please. Please hear me out.”

If she spoke a word she felt like she might explode. So she nodded and he saw that and that was enough to seal the pact between them. Akira let himself speak and with every beat of her heart it felt like a hand was squeezing it tighter and tighter. He had to come back. He had to.

“They'll want to lash out,” Akira spoke of the Phantom Thieves, of his friends and family, and he knew them. He could see it. See a future without him in it. Spoke of it clearly. “They'll want revenge. But that'll just bring attention to them and put them at risk and if anything happens to them I... well I won't be around but even still, I can't accept that. You need to be the one to stop them. To tell them I wouldn't want that. To keep them from losing everything.”

She pictured trying to hold the others together knowing Akira was dead. Her heart ached with a pain she'd never imagined before.

“Futaba trusts you,” he knew how they all fit together. Like a perfect puzzle assembled from pieces that didn't belong in the sets they came with. “She'll listen to you. You need to go to her first, because she's already lost too much. Don't let her feel losing me alone.”

How did he do it? Just analyse the consequences of his own death upon the others, categorise it into a list of needs for how to respond? What was his mental state that he could do such a thing? Makoto couldn't imagine it. She just couldn't.

“Ryuji, Ann, and Haru will stick together. But they're all going to be furious. They'll start coming up with ideas. You need to let them vent, but shoot down their plans while you do. We both know if they decide to do something they'll do it without a second thought, and we both know that won't end well.”

They were wonderful people, shining stars around them, but all three burned with a brightness that was hard to miss. If they were furious it would be known. They would be known. Those left behind couldn't have attention drawn to them. Not at all.

“Convince Yusuke to spend more time around Leblanc, tell him it's watching over Futaba. He'll complain about it but do it all the same. The two of them distract one another from everything else. Once you've calmed Futaba enough, being around Yusuke will help her avoid thinking about it. The two of them will just complain about little things and keep themselves busy. That'll help a bit.”

He was right. She knew he was right in the way he assessed it. But still, to hear Akira laying out the emotional states of his friends in a post-Akira world, it was haunting. How much time had he invested thinking into this? Planning for his own death? Silently contemplating his own demise? How horrible...

“Morgana will stay with Futaba first, help when you're not there. But he'll be thinking about how to keep things going too. He and Ryuji fight too much, but if everyone's together he'll start pushing you all to think about what to do. That's the worst part. You can't be all together.”

A hollow pit inside her stomach yawned cavernously and the emptiness of imagining that made it hurt.

“Too many eyes on you all. If even a hint of planning gets detected you're going to be moved on. You need to go between everyone, and disarm their need to do something about it. You all need to do nothing. Do you understand?”

She hated it. She hated it so much it stung, and it was a pain that cut far deeper than she'd imagined it could. Makoto shook her head. “No I don't understand,” she was the one who refused to meet Akira's eyes now, “I don't understand at all how you can just say things like that, expect us to go on if you die like that. I refuse to understand!”

His hand on her shoulder was closeness she rarely felt – Sae far too distant for any form of physical contact. Makoto didn't look up at Akira even as he stood before her.

“I know,” his voice was quiet, “but I need you to do this for me because no-one else can. I need you to protect them when I can't. Please?”

She nodded. “I hate this.” Her downward gaze still caught Akira's mouth twitching into a smile. She didn't look up to meet his eyes.

“Me too.”

\---

The battle against her sister's Shadow was one desperate, but somewhat surgical all the same. Akira rationed danger out between them with ease, spread immense threat and acted with cold logic in calculating responses. Gave Makoto room to do the same. To practise being in the lead.

Like he'd need her to be if he wasn't there tomorrow.

There was something sickening about the conduct of Akechi, watching him play the consummate team member, all the while knowing he was preparing to murder their leader in less than a day's time. Yet they all clamped down on their frustrations knowing this, and worked together to see victory. The false treasure taken. The Palace preserved. The ambush sprung. Akira captured.

The plan in motion.

By the time Makoto arrived home it was late, Sae greeting her with an inquiry about her absence that evening. Makoto waved it off by referencing a study-group, and that was enough for her sister, whose inner-core had been shaken, though ultimately left unchanged. It was up to her to change on her own. Makoto hoped it would be so.

She lay in bed, sore from the evening's conflict, and her mind refused to let sleep come to her. Every step of the plan she went over, every minute detail. Akira, tomorrow, would be seen by Sae. They would talk, and Akira would convince Sae to take his phone, to show it to Akechi. In that moment each would enter the Metaverse, Akechi to kill the cognitive Akira, Sae to be directed to return immediately and retrieve the real one.

Something was off.

Makoto frowned, rolling over in her bed and repeating that moment. Akechi and Sae would enter the Metaverse, where a cognitive Akira would be waiting to be murdered. The cognitive Akira was there because Sae knew Akira would be there. Everyone Sae was aware of would be there.

Every... one...

The speed at which Makoto launched herself out of bed, hand grabbing at her night-stand to retrieve her phone, made enough noise that a light-sleeper would be shaken and complain. But Sae was deeply asleep that night as her Palace struggled with the defeat of its ruler, and no attention was given to the sound coming from Makoto's room as she slammed the message out to the group as fast as she could.

Something would have to be done.

 **Makoto:** THE COGNITIVE AKECHI  
**Futaba:** ?  
**Futaba:** OH FUCK

\---

**_11/20, Sunday Daytime_ **

Perhaps, it could be accused, Makoto had been slightly over-zealous in ensuring her sister's cognition of Goro Akechi was unable to interfere with the plan. Sae's perception of him, after all, had been something of a mild-mannered dork. Nonetheless Makoto would insist, were she called out on it, that she had acted in their leader's best interest.

No-one could argue that.

\---

The announcement came in that evening. Makoto had been working at the school, a Student Council President's business never truly done, and so was alone when the news spread. The news that the leader of the Phantom Thieves had committed suicide in custody.

For the majority of the Phantom Thieves, this was a moment of cautious optimism. Things had gone exactly as they'd expected it to. There was a risk, yes, but they chose to believe in Akira. All would go well.

He'd be back soon.

But for Makoto it wasn't the same. This was the moment he'd asked her to prepare for. They didn't know if he was dead. And if he was it was Makoto's duty now to take over for him. To keep the others from lashing out and risking their own lives in vengeance. To keep them safe.

And so while the others continued on, pretended to know nothing and believed all was going as planned, Makoto ran over conversations she was to have if things had not. Of convincing Futaba to go on. Of talking down Ryuji from the need to scream at the entire world. Of asking Haru to stay with her because if she were alone she might break.

Makoto planned out every word she'd need to say if Akira Kurusu was dead and it broke her heart and she couldn't help but cry. Foolish, she didn't even know he was gone. But if he was everything she would have to do hurt so much. It hurt.

It hurt it hurt it hurt.

And the evening continued on and the world continued on and Makoto spent the night trying and failing to sleep. Until, at a similar time to the night before, a message arrived for her.

 **Futaba:** Package secured  >:3

And, for once out of happiness, Makoto Niijima cried herself to sleep.

\---

**_11/21, Monday Evening_ **

When the next day came, when they gathered at Leblanc and a bruised, battered, but alive Akira entered the cafe, Makoto was glad she was at the back of the group as they rushed upon him. Hopefully no-one would see her wipe away a tear.

Akira smiled as he swept his eyes from each of those before him.

For those he'd come home to.

“I'm back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Been struggling with the Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya name for a while but ultimately I've been writing an Akira all this time, so Akira it will stay. That's just how it be.
> 
> \---
> 
> Now THIS fic I've had in mind for a while. Makoto's one of the PThieves I've explored the least, so getting into her head in a high-stress moment was good for me. Also pre-interrogation is a rich vein I feel, so I was really happy to take a swing at it. I'm pretty pleased with this fic overall actually, I feel like maybe I've improved with it, so I hope it proves enjoyable for you all!
> 
> I can't say I know what will be next or when it will be, but I can promise I've got plenty of more cards waiting to be drawn, so we'll see what happens when it happens. As always, thanks for reading. Please look forward to what comes next.


End file.
